In agriculture, there are many pathogens that will reduce both productivity and quality of crops. Enormous losses result each year due to the infestations of plant pathogens. One of the most difficult areas of pathogen control is in soil-born organisms. Products that give the desired levels of control are often toxic to the plant as well. In addition, these products are often extremely toxic to the environment, and are being banned from production and use. Therefore, the idea of a product or products that can accomplish desired levels of control without the toxicity would indeed be valuable.
One of the greatest problems created in agriculture today is the use of toxic chemicals as a means of pathogenic control. In the chemical boom of the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's, many chemicals were created as a means of controlling organisms that caused plant damage. Unfortunately, at the same time, little or no advances were being made to understand the complexities involved in a biological system, and these chemicals were applied to the soil or plant with only the control or elimination of the pathogen in mind. It was not appreciated that by eliminating the pathogen, many beneficial organisms were eliminated as well. This is significant in that when the organism presented itself at a later date, the pathogen met little or no resistance due to the fact that all of its "competitors" had been eliminated. Now an even larger problem is at hand. The only means of control available to the farmer now is the use of more of the same chemical for control. This too has its problems in that as in all biological systems, evolution or adaptation is a fact of life. Now resistance is present which means that new and more toxic chemicals must be used, and now the farmer is caught in a endless cycle of depending on toxic chemicals.